The Dialogue with Alternative Medicine

The Dialogue with Alternative Medicine

Conventional medicine has little to learn from alternative medicine Suppose you catch a sudden flu after a frantic night out, what would be your first treatment? Do you rush to the pharmacist nearby or your doctor? Or do you have a hot bath and relax sipping some herbal tea and patiently wait until your body condition comes to normal believing in your natural healing power of your body system? Whatever you have in your mind, alternative medicine is not such an alien method as some might reckon. As a matter of fact, it is very deeply involved in our everyday life. It varies from simple treatments such as aromatherapy to rather complicated (and somehow mystic!) ones like accupuncture and hypnotherapy. It has such a wide coverage that any method with no reference to institutionalized medical knowledge might well be called alternative medicine. Alternative medicine has indeed far longer history than conventional one that had sprung from the former.

One of their differences is in their respective philosophy and methodology. Conventional medicine is mainly based on analytic and positivistic approach toward human body. Medical doctors regard a human body as a mechanism regulated by scientific law. Human body is supposed to be measured and controlled (without exception, in principle) by scientific method and treatment just like any other material. The present medical institution is sustained by the strong belief in this positivistic approach and philosophical attitude of mind-body dualism. It develops itself by way of chemical and physical experiment and anatomy: it demands a strong evidence and proof. Evidence, in theory, is the sole criterion to tell the science (therefore conventional medicine) from non-science. On the other hand, alternative medicine shows totally different approach towards human body (and world itself, sometimes). Our body is regarded as a holistic organism with a strong (or almost inseparable) connection to...